PONTO DEL GADA

As we had started at an early hour from Villa Franca, the clocks
were just striking ten when we alighted at Mrs. Currie's hotel;
consequently, there was a long day yet before us, in which we
might see everything that was to be seen in the place. Having
discharged our muleteers, therefore, who seemed overjoyed at the
receipt of one dollar a-piece, swallowed a hasty breakfast, and
made ourselves somewhat comfortable, we lost no time in setting
out upon a stroll of examination and discovery.

Ponto del Gada is, on the whole, rather a neat town, containing
from twelve to fourteen thousand inhabitants; but being built,
especially in the outskirts, without much regard to compactness,
it covers more ground than many places of double the amount in
population. It stands upon a little bay, formed by two
projecting headlands, and can boast of a tolerable harbour
excellent roadstead. In its immediate vicinity the country a
more uniformly level than any I had yet observed; the vale
extending to the distance of four or five miles on every side,
had ending in an amphitheatre of low green hills, which resemble
appearance, the downs as they are seen from Eastbourne in Sussex.
The whole of this flat is in a state of high cultivation, being
cleared, perhaps too completely, of wood, and portioned off into
different fields and parks by hedges and stone walls. Judging
from the appearance of the crops, I should conceive that the
soil was here of some depth, as well as fertility, the whole
valley being covered with wheat, barley, and Indian corn. And in
truth, if the aspect of the country beyond the downs, where rocks
tower one above another in rude and barren grandeur, furnish a